Finishing textile material



Oct. 20, 1936. F. DRECHSEL FINISHING TEXTILE MATERIAL Filed Feb. 2'7, 1935 Invenior 3 772172 EREcHsEL v ltorneys Patented Oct. 20, 193$ PATENT oFFlc FINISHING TEXTILE Fritz Drechsel, Munich, Germany Application February 2'1,v 1935, Serial No. 8,431 In Germany November 15, 1933 2 Claims. (01. 8-20) This invention concerns an improved process to render textiles consisting of vegetable fibres and more particularly textile fabrics containin such fibres non-shrinking.

More especially,

chemical treatment to, produce a non-shrinking effect on vegetable textile materials and particularly on fabrics of such kind.

For this purpose pure mechanical 'processes are already known. For example a loosening of the warp and the weft has been attained by pinning a fabric in folded condition on chains and treating it while in that condition with steam and with liquids applied by spraying. It is also known to apply fabrics with lag to pin chains of apparatus such as tensioning frames or drying apparatus and thereby to obtain a loosening of the warp.

The process according to the invention which is of mainly chemical nature produces an efiect which is more perfect and permanent.

According to the invention, the unfinished or partly finished material and particularly a fabric either unsized or sized is steeped in a solution 25 of a caustic alkali lye, thenv the superfluous liquid expelled by pressure, and then the wet textile material is wound, without previous rinsing, on a roller on which a rolling pressure is exerted on the fabric, after some time the fabric is so removed from the roller and is left to an untensioned condition by laying it in folds or by suspending it in a loose condition. During this step of the operation, the shrinking of the fabric is completed under the influence of the alkali lye which is still present within the fibres.

The anti-shrinking effect is more accelerated if the fabric in the loose condition is dried by suitable means to a lower degree of humidity but care should be taken that the fabric will not be entirely dry but shows still a wet touch The effect is furthermore accelerated and the process may be accordingly considerably shortened when certain moistening agents are added to the alkali lye for instance g'lycerine, alcohol, acetone or sulphonated fats, fatty acids or higher molecular alcohols or sulphonated derivatives of the oxidized aromatic components such as phenol or naphthol.

' Finally, the fabric is treated with suitable means to neutralize and remove the alkali lye, and rinsed and dried in the usual way during which operations it is advantageous to avoid tensions in the fabric.

The fabric attained in this manner has a notethe invention concerns a worthy elasticity and is therefore not permanently deformed by tension. In addition, the fabric has imparted to it a valuable appearance resembling that of linen which differentiates the fabric in advantageous manner from the appear- 5 ance of a non-shrinking fabric obtained solely by a pure mechanical process.

The process can be carried out with usual arrangements and apparatus available in most finishing plants. For the initial treatment, a set 10 of pressure rollers is very suitable by which the excess of the alkali lye is expelled from the fabric which previously has been passed through a vat or trough containing a solution of alkali lye.

A further roller is loosely arranged as to be 15 movable up and down and as to rest on the surface of one of the rollers mentioned above. This I roller exerts by its own weight a certain pressure on the other roller which may be increased by additional regulating weights. 20

The fabric which passes through the pressing rollers is conducted around the surface of one of these rollers tocthe winding roller resting on the last-mentioned roller which rotates in another sense and winds the fabric to a roll of consider- 25 able thickness and of heavy weight.

For the treatment in the. loose condition several different apparatus are suitable, for instance a folding device which consists of a reciprocating device which lays the fabric in folds into a recep- 30 tacle, or a support which may be movable through a drying chamber.

All further details of the improved process may be seenfrom the following examples which are illustrated by the annexed drawing representing 35 suitable devices for performing the process, Fig. 1 being a vertical section through an impregnating machine such as I may use for carrying out my improved process, while Fig. 2 is a vertical section through a drier and the parts adjacent 4o thereto.

Example 1 the soaked fabric is wound to a gradually in- 50 creasing roll. Braking rods la, lb are provided before vat 3, and guiding rods 8, 9, l0 within such vat below the lower roller I. A suitable frame i I is provided with bearings for the rollers I, 2 and 4, 5 and tiltable arms 6 for the beam 3|. A pair 55 of rails I! are fixed to frame I I and standards I3. A receptacle It contains the fabric I5 in folded layers and a further guiding rod I5 is arranged above said receptacle.

The vat 3 is filled with a soda lye of 16-28% and of 7-18 C. Moistening agents may be added to the lye in a suitable quantity.

The fabric i5 is drawn with a speed of 40-45 metres per minute over the rod Hi, the braking rods la, lb through the vat 3 below the guiding rods 8 and Ill, then upward to the auxiliary roller 4, then again downward into the vat 3 over rod 9 and upwards to the second auxiliary roller 5. Then the fabric is passed between the larger rollers I, 2, surrounds partly the surface of the upper roller 2 and is wound on the beam 3! to a large roll of say 80-150 centimeters diameter.

The roll rotates by friction with the upper roller 2 and exerts a rolling pressure on the fabric which may be continued for about two hours with the fully wound beam 3!.

, Then the arms 6 are tilted downward by turning the wheels 33, 34 so as to pay out the flexible connection 32 leading to said arms and the roll is put on the rails l2 and rolled along them. Hence the fabric is unwound, conducted over guiding rods Ha, Hi), I 1c and I8 to a reciprocating device l9 whose movement is indicated by arrow A and which lays the fabric l5 in loose folds. into-the receptacle 28. After a 18-20 hour's rest, the lye is removed from the fabric in the usual manner on the well-known countercurrent washing machine or on a lye extractor which are not illustrated by the drawing. After the washing, the fabric is neutralized with diluted acid and washed again. The neutralized fabric from which the liquid has been expelled measures about 98% of the initial length of the fabric whereas a normal mercerized cloth measures 103% of the initial length. Furthermore, the fabric is so elastic that a stretching tension of 2-3% which may occur in dyeing or printing can be directly counteracted by allowing the fabric to pass freely to the drying cylinder during drying.

Example 2 The impregnation of the fabric is the same as in Example 1. The fully wound roll on beam 38, however, is put on bearings of a standard 2|, (Fig. 2), from which it is drawn oil and guided aooasaa into a drying chamber 22 provided with two rows of upper and lower guiding rollers or rods 23, 24 respectively. The fabric passes by serpentines through the drying chamber 22, heated by a radiator 30 and provided with an inlet 29 and a ventilator 28, is partially dried and leaves the chamber 22 at the other end in a still wet condition. Of course, the drying chamber may be dispensed with in certain cases, particularly if a strong lye has been used.

A guiding rod 25 and a folding reciprocating device 26 whose movement is indicated by arrow B, serve for folding and laying the fabric into the receptacle 21. After a rest of about 6-12 hours the fabric is rinsed, neutralized, washed and dried as set forth in Example 1.

It is to be understood that the foregoing examples are merely illustrative and are not intended to define the limits of the invention.

What I claim is:

1. A process for imparting a non-shrinking, linen-like finish to a textile material containing vegetable fibres comprising steeping the textile material in an alkali-lye bath for a short time, leading the lye-containing wet material to a beam, rotating said beam frictionally by a rotating counter-roller on which said beam rests, and winding the wet material to a gradually increasing roll under rolling pressure, leaving the roll of lye-containing material for some time in a,

wound condition, then unwinding the material and leaving it in loose condition. and finally rinsing and neutralizing the material.

2. A process for imparting a non-shrinking, linen-like finish to textile materials containing vegetable fibres comprising steeping the textile material in an alkali-lye bath for a short time, leading the lye-containing wet material to a beam, rotating said beam frictionally by a rotating counter-roller on which said beam rests, winding the wet material on said beam to a gradually increasing roll under rolling pressure,

leaving the roll of lye-containing material for some time in wound condition, unwinding subsequently the material from said roll, suspending it in unstretched condition in a drying chamber, drying it to a still moist condition, and finally rinsing and neutralizing it.

' FRITZ DRECHSEL. 

